Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance hit record revenue of £1.8 billion in its most recent financial year, the firm has announced, topping Magic Circle rivals Allen & Overy and Linklaters.

CC grew revenue by 6% for the year ending April 2020 to reach the figure, and is the first of the Magic Circle to grow across the three key metrics of revenue, profits and PEP.

The firm increased PEP by 5% to hit £1.69 million over the same period, while it grew profits  by 5% to hit £666 million.

The results represent stronger growth for the firm than the previous financial year, when the firm grew its revenues by 4.3%, and PEP by just 1%.

CC's results come one week after rivals Allen & Overy and Linklaters posted drops in profits and PEP, citing the impact of the COVID-19 on their global businesses.

CC said in a statement that its Americas practice had been a key part of its revenue growth, and that the arm's individual revenue grew 16% over the year to hit $330 million.

CC global managing partner Matthew Layton said that the Americas practice "remains an absolute strategic priority for the firm and is an area where we are extremely well-placed for ever greater success."

Layton added that the firm's financial investors and litigation and dispute resolution practices had performed very well during the year.

The firm reported that revenue from its private equity and asset manager clients grew by nearly 70% since 2015, while the litigation and disputes group's revenues had grown 21% over the past year.

Layton said that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was only really felt by the global markets from March onwards, adding that this meant the firm had a pipeline of work to carry it through beyond the end of the firm's financial year.

This included advising on mandates such as the £31 billion merger between media giants Liberty Global and Telefónica while under lockdown, and advising pharma giant Pfizer on a joint venture to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

However, Layton said that he remains "very cautious about the outlook for the coming year" and anticipates the impact of the pandemic to be felt strongly by the global economy in Q4 2020.

The firm said that it had successfully renewed a scheduled five-year revolving credit facility in April and added that it will be taking a provision against its profits being distributable to partners, whereby the firm will hold more of its profits to be injected back into the business where necessary.

While CC staff have returned to the office in several jurisdictions, Layton said that a date for U.K. staff to substantially return to the workplace has not yet been set.

The firm is running a three-phase return to work plan, which Layton says is now approaching 'phase two'. As part of this stage, the firm will split its workforce into two teams — red and blue — so that they can return to the office, provided that the COVID-19 infection rate stays relatively low.

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